australia

Good afternoon, Aussie and Kiwi readers. If you've been drooling with envy at your American counterparts over the ad-free options in YouTube Red and bonus access to the YouTube Music app, you can stop it now. Both Google's support page and several Android Police readers report that the services are now live down under, available for anyone who'd like to sign up. It should be possible to begin a subscription from the web or the YouTube app.

We all love the Chromecast thanks to its cheap price and almost endless potential to turn any TV into a smart streaming machine. Last year, Google released an update to the original Chromecast with a few minor improvements as well as a Chromecast Audio that works with all Aux speakers. Now these new gadgets are available for purchase in the southern part of our planet: Australia and New Zealand.

In Australia, the Chromecast 2015 and Chromecast Audio will be priced at $59 AUD (approx.

If you're an American and you've heard the tongue-twisting country music ballad "I've Been Everywhere," odds are that you've heard the most popular version from Johnny Cash, or perhaps the earlier version by the unequaled Hank Snow. There have been dozens of adaptations of the song, for everywhere from Texas to Singapore. But the original was written by Geoff Mack way back in 1959 and popularized by Lucky Starr, and the first set of lyrics was exclusively tailored to cities, towns, and regions in Australia. The song featured such multi-syllabic municipalities as Megalong, Tamborine, Woodenbong, and Grong Grong.

Millions of people already consider Pandora the best way to discover new music. You create a station starting with an artist you like, and the site follows that up with songs sharing similar characteristics. You indicate whether you like or don't like a song, and the station gets smarter from there.

Ever since its official start in September, Android Pay has expanded bank support, payment terminal support (Square, Paypal Here), and recently started handling in-app purchases. However, Google's payment system has been bound by the USA borders so far and no user outside of the country has been able to set it up or use it. This is changing in the first half of 2016 when Android Pay should launch in the land down under otherwise known as Australia.

In an announcement on the Google Australia Blog, Google explained that Android Pay will launch in partnership with many banks and financial institutions in the country like ANZ, Westpac, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia, ING DIRECT, and others.

YouTube Kids launched in the US back in February with the aim of making it easier and safer for kids to watch videos on YouTube. So far, the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times across all platforms, and Malik Ducard, YouTube's Global Head of Family and Learning, says that families consider it to be "among the top kids apps available." Today, the team is expanding YouTube Kids into five new countries — Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — and adding in lots of country-specific programming like Charli's Crafty Kitchen and Wild Kratts, too.

YouTube Kids boasts many elements parents will find very attractive, such as a playful, child-friendly design, voice search for kids who are still learning their ABCs, and plenty of family-focused content.

Do you ever feel left out because of all the US-only news we post? If you live in Australia, then you're in luck, because this one is just for you! Now those Americans can finally experience what you have to go through on a daily basis, right? Actually, probably not, since this is likely not the kind of thing over which you want exclusivity.

Many Australian Nexus 6P owners have been experiencing connectivity issues on Telstra, one of the country's three main mobile carriers. The issues seem to arise whenever the device disconnects from a WiFi network and switches to a 4G connection.

Google is often accused of having a heavy focus on the United States. That's certainly true, but come on - it's a US company. Nobody seems to mind that Samsung sells a ton of phones in South Korea, or that Japan gets the newest and hottest Canon cameras before anyone else. Can you really blame a company with limited hardware resources for prioritizing a new product launch in certain markets?

Netflix has said it wants to expand its service to as much of the world as possible, and now the time has come for residents Down Under to fire up the streaming service. According to AusDroid, Netflix is now available in Australia,with streaming plans ranging from A$8.99 to A$14.99.

The cheapest plan offers only standard definition streaming on a single screen, while the most expensive option supports 4K and streaming on up to four devices. In the middle, an A$11.99 plan supports HD on two pieces of hardware.

Netflix works on just about any Android device and essentially everything newer than a Game Boy, making it a pretty cheap way to watch shows on whatever you have lying around.